How to Pick a Niche and Turn That Into an Info Product

Everyone has a message, a life story, or a body of knowledge that is valuable and useful to others. Once you identify what yours is, that message and knowledge can be monetized as an info product.

People are often overwhelmed by the idea of creating an info product, but as former mortgage broker and digital information business expert, Susan Lassiter Lyons would tell you, it is far from an unattainable goal. She speaks from experience, having gone from mortgage broker to online mogul in relatively short order. Many people, just like her (and you), create information products such as e-books, CDs, DVDs, workbooks, seminars, and other programs to add value to their target audience every day.

Marci Shimoff is a former stress management consultant who wrote the book “Happy For No Reason”. Now she offers audio courses, teleseminars, and a home study course on… how to be happy.

Gary Vaynerchuck worked at his parent’s liquor store in New Jersey and is a self-taught wine expert. He went on to start WineLibrary.tv, an online wine webseries, and WineLibrary.com to sell wine online. Now he is a sought-after expert in social media and teaches companies how to build their brands online.

Ben Ford is a retired engineer who now sells e-books on how to build solar panels and wind farms. His sales generate more than $30,000 a week!

Susan Lassiter-Lyons was a former mortgage broker who closed her business in November 2008 after the “Mortgage Meltdown”. She launched her digital information business and real estate investing blog in January 2009 based around her expertise in real estate investing and hit six figures in July 2009. She didn’t stop there – now she’s well into the seven figures.

Let their stories bear witness that you don’t have to be well-known in order to market a successful info product. Third party online marketplaces like ClickBank.com make it easy for you.

ClickBank offers more than 50,000 digital products covering topics as diverse as how to manage menopause, how to get rock-hard abs, and how to build a solar panel! All these products have TWO things in common:

They are sold and delivered online

They are created by regular people just like you and me

How to Identify Your Expertise

Begin by taking an inventory of your knowledge:

– What do people always ask you about?

– What have you studied extensively?

– Most Importantly: What do you love to do?

Once you’ve identified your specific message or body of knowledge that you wish to focus on, start brainstorming particularly pressing questions about that topic you can address in your info product.

As a useful info product hack, go to answers.yahoo.com and type your topic in the search bar. Each of the top questions that come up can be a chapter in your e-book! Write it in a Word doc and save as a PDF and there you have it! The first draft of your e-book.

Once you start getting fancy, have a designer format it and add graphics. If you don’t have easy access to a designer, use a freelance network like Elance.com or oDesk.com to help you find one.

With that product you will want to implement Susan’s three-step framework to really grow it into a profitable online business.

Remember, when creating an info product, identifying your expertise is the first and most crucial step. Choosing a topic that you aren’t passionate about will inevitably result in failure. Pick something you love to do and that you won’t mind putting some elbow grease into. Once you find that perfect topic, it will just flow – I promise!

About The Author

Stephan Spencer is author of Google Power Search (O'Reilly 2011) and co-author of The Art of SEO, now in its 2nd Edition (O'Reilly 2012). In 1999, Stephan founded leading SEO firm, Netconcepts and has been heavy into the science of SEO since then. In 2010, Netconcepts was acquired by software/services agency Covario. Stephan is also the inventor of the automated pay-for-performance natural search technology platform GravityStream (re-branded as RIO SEO Website Optimizer). He contributes to a vast array of publications, including The Huffington Post, Practical Ecommerce, MarketingProfs.com, Search Engine Land and Multichannel Merchant. Stephan regularly presents at industry events, including Shop.org, Internet Retailer and SMX, about SEO and other online marketing topics. He is on the advisory board of CrowdGather and holds an M.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

26 Comments

Edgar

I agree with you.. you can literally make money online from any niche. You just have to take action.

I always hear people complaint about not having money, but when you ask them what are they doing to change that… they never have a plan.

Start with a niche site.

April 17, 2013

Stephen Malan

Very good post, got me to think about other niches I could be possibly working in.

Thanks for the tips!

April 17, 2013

Sunday

A simple and straight to point piece! Info products have saturated the Internet. The good news is that there is still room for new products!

STEPHAN SPENCER’s ideas in this post are handy and can help newbies find a their niche and profit from it.

Indeed there are many options of info products to pick from, just as one has the option to sell direct or use services like ClickBank. Whichever way has been developed, it is important to adhere to the basics: research your passion, and do what you love!

The above comment was left in Kingged.com the IM social site where this article was shared and “kingged”.

Riza

Creating an info product and promoting it is great but you have to be sure that you are not wasting your audience’s money. Because if they feel like it isn’t worth their bucks after all, they’ll end up leaving you for good. Instead of creating a steady stream of loyal consumers, you’ll eventually lose them.

Nice post, Stephan! I liked it a lot I decided to share it on the IM Social Networking site, Kingged.com 🙂

Gerardo

Paulette

Gus

faisal

So its about how you present it.

April 18, 2013

Ken Savage

Maaaaaan I gotta disagree with you a bit Stephan. You said in the last paragraph that if you’re not passionate about the subject you’ll #FAIL?

I’ve create 3 products that I was not passionate about just by coming up with a dozen hot topics people searched for and put those in my ebook. Then I sold that ebook directly from my website. Did it make me million$ ? No. But it does passively make $50-$300/week combined over the last few years.

Again, was I passionate about these topics? no. But I was able to find a topic that was searched frequently enough, write 10k words on it and put it into ebook form and sell it for $17.

April 18, 2013

Jeremy Schoemaker

Ken I agree FAIL is a strong word. I have written that in order for a company/product to have long term success its gotta be something that you are passionate about… something you want to use… or something that you wish someone told you.

On another note I believe from my own experiences in others that if you are just starting out that you will fail if its not something you care about. Most people when starting don’t have near the knowledge that you do and when they don’t make money overnight they are out.

April 18, 2013

Pingback: ‘How to Pick a Niche and Turn That Into an Info Product’ – ShoeMoney Blog | Work With Marcel Schmidt

April 18, 2013

Oswald Rodrigues

I agree with Ken. You don’t have to pick a niche you are passionate about (or even know anything about). Just pick a niche that is in demand and take over from there. You’ll make bank.

April 18, 2013

Pingback: How to Pick a Niche and Turn That Into an Info Product – Shoemoney | geripibyledy

April 18, 2013

Dorothy

Thanks for this info, Stephen! Great blog!

April 19, 2013

Fred

I remember Gary Vaynerchuck’s name, he wrote, “Crush It.” It’s about how he did what he did. It’s a short read, but it’s got good stuff in it about how to use social media.

April 21, 2013

Harry Bhanot

This is great info. and it can help think of many new niches out there. Its just not all about marketing, weight loss or dog training..Thanks shoemoney.

April 21, 2013

Elmo

I think when people create a product/service they need to think about what they like to do and focus on that because then they will succeed more

April 22, 2013

Rolf

hate work books but love videos to watch on the comp. this is something anyone can download and watch anywhere and get done. Easy to do while traveling. think of how many people go to youtube daily

April 22, 2013

Wally

you know what i found what i like more about products… ones that have less steps and just get to the point on what you need to do. no need to make the product pretty at all just make it full of info

April 22, 2013

Marlene

do you think products are the way to go to make money? I think if you are going to make a product make one about the hot new topics that are trending and get it out there asap

April 22, 2013

Donnell

Some of my favorite products have come from jeremy himself thanks man for your wonderful work

April 22, 2013

Tommy

Very interesting, thank’s

May 1, 2013

lesniks

Very interesting, thank’s

May 3, 2013

Ted Phillips

I think the very first step in choosing your niche is to determine what are the things that you like best. The things that you like personally. Determine the things or topics that you have an idea on what to write about or talk about. That way, it would be easier to grow that niche.

May 7, 2013

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